Daily Reflection: An Exercise to Stop Negative Thinking

Researchers say that we have millions of thoughts a day (and thanks to social media we feel compelled to SHARE most of them.) Some thoughts are really good, but others can be – in the immortal words of Cher Horowitz in Clueless – “Way harsh.”

It can start off pretty simple, but soon enough you’ve got to put an umbrella over your brain to keep the monsoon of negative thoughts from crushing your head. It can ruin your day.

You CAN stop the Hailstorm of Negativity that’s bothering you. This exercise will sound very “woo woo” but try it and see if it helps:

Place two empty jars/vases in your bedroom. One is for good thoughts/actions, one is for negative thoughts. For the next week, every time you have a bad thought, write it down and place it into the negative thought jar (you’ll need to carry a paper and pen with you.) You will write down every good thought and – here’s the kicker – place money (whatever denomination you can afford) into the good thought jar.

At the end of the week, dump the bad thoughts out. Read them, acknowledge them, then burn and/or destroy them. Take the money accumulated in the good thought/action jar and buy something to reward yourself. The goal is eventually to want more money in the good thought jar so you can do something nice for yourself and less negative stuff in the other jar. You only put money in the good thought jar because you want to “invest” in yourself. 🙂

Because at the end of the day, the good should outweigh the bad, right? Try this exercise and see if you can’t relieve yourself from negative thinking over time. I know it’s worked for me.